The Polaris Protocol

by Brad Taylor

  “Negative. We’re getting the device.”

  The Ghost grabbed my arm. “It’s running. He’s initiated it.”

  Shit.

  I said, “Let’s go. Jennifer, get on the Ghost. Get him out of here.”

  We began crashing through the foliage and I heard the Ghost shout something at my back. I ignored him and continued on, huffing into my radio. “Knuckles, what do you have?”

  His answer came back the same way, as if he were panting it out. “He’s at the fence. He’s climbing. I’m not going to reach him before he’s over.”

  “Decoy, Decoy, status?”

  “I’m coming. I’m coming. I got him when he clears the fence. Pike, the GPS in our car has gone haywire.”

  Blood had left me behind, running through the woods like a deer. He closed on Knuckles and I heard, “He’s over. Decoy, Decoy, he’s over.”

  “Roger. I see him. I see him. He’s coming to the road about a hundred meters up.”

  I said, “Stop his ass. Run him over if you have to.”

  I saw Knuckles ahead, halfway up the fence, Blood leaping up right behind him. I sprinted as fast as I could, hearing the worst.

  “Pike, Pike, he’s got help. A car just hopped the curb and he’s in it. They’re mounted now.”

  Interdict the car? Have Decoy slam into them?

  “Can you stop them?”

  “Not right here. I’ve got cars in between us. Knuckles, I got you. I’m ten seconds out.”

  I leapt onto the fence and said, “Pull over. Pick us up.”

  I flipped to the far side, hung for a split second, then dropped to the sidewalk, seeing Knuckles and Blood diving into the vehicle. I sprinted to the open door and heard a pop to my rear, at the museum, as loud as a gunshot fired right next to me. I crammed into the back of the SUV, Decoy hit the gas, and Knuckles said, “What the hell was that?”

  I said, “I don’t know. Get moving.” Then it dawned on me.

  Oh man. The ankle cuffs. The GPS thinks he’s out of the boundary.

  For a moment I couldn’t concentrate because of what I’d done to the Ghost. I’d promised him safety, and I’d maimed him for life instead. Quite possibly killed him. That’s what he was shouting when you ran away.

  He was a terrorist, but he was also human. He was my charge, my responsibility, and I hadn’t thought through what would happen if they initiated the device for any length of time greater than a simple five-second test.

  The SUV jerked to the left, slamming my body against the door and bringing me back to the mission. Decoy said, “See that yellow sedan? That’s him.”

  “Get on him. Knock him off the road. Everybody, the device is running. Don’t waste time trying to subdue anyone. Interdict the car and kill all inside. Find the device and shut it down.”

  I called Jennifer, “Koko, Koko, what’s your status?”

  I got no response. “Koko, Koko, status?”

  I felt a sour, nauseous sense of dread. She was on the Ghost when his cuffs had gone off. Please don’t let her have been hurt by my stupidity.

  63

  Jennifer watched Pike and Knuckles race into the woods, then turned to the Ghost, putting her front sight post on his head.

  “Get up. Now. We need to clear the area.”

  He screamed, “The device is on! It’s on!”

  “I know that,” she snarled. “Get your ass up, now!”

  “My cuffs are going to blow. The POLARIS protocol has tricked them into thinking I’m somewhere else!”

  Jennifer heard the words and took a step back, wondering if he was lying. She knew from personal experience the man was deadly and wicked smart.

  The Ghost looked at her and pleaded, “Please . . . take them off. I’m running out of time.”

  Pike had ensured that every member of the team held a key that would unlock the cuffs in case emergency action was necessary, just as every prison guard had the ability to unlock their charges. But doing so would release the Ghost into the world without any controls. Something akin to opening the cage of a wolf inside a nursery.

  She knelt down, keeping the barrel of her Glock on his head, the suppressor wobbling from the adrenaline. She touched the ankle cuff on his right leg and felt it vibrating. She leapt back.

  “How long? How much time since they started?”

  “I don’t know. Please, don’t let this happen. I won’t hurt you. I’ll follow you wherever you want. Do whatever you say. Just don’t let this thing maim me.”

  She instinctively wanted to help but now had a second dilemma: If she tried to remove the cuffs, she could have her hands blown off because the time ran out.

  She looked into his eyes, enlarged through the thick glasses he wore, and saw despair. Along with resignation. He thinks he’s doomed. He believes nobody like me will help him. Believes I want him to suffer.

  She laid the Glock on the ground and ripped through her pockets for the key. He sat up, an incredulous expression on his face. She knelt down, frantically working the circular laser key into the right cuff. She got it off and flung it far into the woods. Hands shaking, she went to work on the left cuff, wasting precious seconds getting the key inserted. She twisted, and the lock refused to move. Her brain screamed for her to run, screamed that the fuse was reaching the end.

  She jerked the key left and right without result, then took a deep breath, willing herself to relax. She pulled the key from the lock, blew on its grooves to remove any blockage, then reinserted it, the clock in her head now banging in a crescendo.

  The lock turned, releasing the cuff. She snatched it away and threw it backhand over her body. It went seven feet from her hand and exploded, the shock wave slapping into her head. She felt a stinging pain in her shoulder and rolled on the ground.

  She heard nothing in her ears but ringing. She sat up and found the Ghost standing above her, holding her weapon.

  The last thing she saw was the barrel of the heavy suppressor coming at her temple.

  64

  Decoy jerked the wheel to the left, swerving around the last car that separated us from our target. I stopped trying to get Jennifer on the radio, focusing on the immediate mission.

  Paseo de la Reforma was a four-lane boulevard in this area, with the inbound lanes separated from the outbound by a median ten meters wide and lined with trees. He could only go straight, the thoroughfare a channelized kill zone.

  Decoy said, “Got stopped traffic ahead. Pedestrian crossing.”

  I saw the right-side window of the sedan come down, and a man hung out with a pistol, firing our way. Decoy shouted and I flattened onto the seat, fighting with Knuckles and Blood to get as low as possible. I heard the windshield pop, the safety glass spiderwebbing from multiple rounds. The salvo done, Decoy snapped upright.

  I got an up that nobody was hit, then strained to locate the sedan but was unable to see anything because of the spiderweb of cracks in the windshield. Decoy was driving with his head held just above the steering wheel, looking through a spot of clean glass.

  “He’s hopped the curb, using the crosswalk.”

  I hung my head out the window and saw the sedan plow into two people, flipping them over the hood before they spilled back onto the brick walkway. The sedan reached the far side and whipped around in front of the traffic stopped on the eastbound side, pedestrians screaming and diving out of the way.

  “Follow him!”

  We hit the curb at speed, the jolt bouncing everyone inside. Decoy kept the pedal buried, looking like a little old lady crouched behind the wheel, threading the path the sedan had created. We hit the east side before the light changed and found ourselves behind the target, nothing between us but road. Decoy swung into the lane and began to gain with each passing second, our horsepower greater than the sedan’s.

  I said, “We gotta end this. Cops wil
l be here soon.”

  The sedan was rocketing forward way too fast, reaching seventy miles an hour before it hit the next pack of traffic. It slowed and began weaving, still going much faster than was safe. We followed, causing brake lights to flash as the two vehicles swam through the traffic like sharks in a school of goldfish.

  We caught up with the sedan at the first traffic circle of the central district. The man popped out of the window again, aiming his pistol, and Decoy hammered the sedan’s right rear quarter panel. I saw the gun skip across the roof as the car was flung sideways into the traffic circle.

  The driver broadsided a vehicle, regained control, and exited the circle, back on Paseo de la Reforma, now separated from us by a small cluster of cars. All Decoy could do was pound his horn in frustration.

  We circled back onto Reforma and once again began to work our way forward, everyone straining to catch sight of the yellow sedan.

  Blood, his head hanging out the left window, said, “Got him. Five cars ahead. Florencia traffic circle coming up.”

  Continuing to weave, gaining ground, Decoy was slowed behind two cars driving the same pace. Frustrated, he jammed the accelerator, splitting the gap between them. He clipped the rearview of the car to our right, spraying the road with glitter before cutting back left, now two cars behind the sedan.

  They saw us coming and accelerated, attempting the same maneuver. The sedan ground into the car on the left, then jerked to the right, hammering that vehicle before springing back to the left like a pinball. The two wrecked vehicles on either side slowed, and the sedan jumped forward into the Florencia traffic circle, moving with too much velocity, causing it to skid sideways.

  I heard the squeal of tortured rubber and saw a panel truck, tires smoking, slam straight into the driver’s-side door of the sedan.

  Decoy jammed the brakes and I shouted, “Go, go, go!”

  The three of us exited at a run, Blood leaving Knuckles and me behind as he raced to the vehicle. I saw a man jump from the passenger side and sprint to the sidewalk, hitting Florencia and going south. Blood reached the vehicle, batting his way through the crowd. Knuckles and I diverted to the sidewalk, going after the man.

  Blood came on the radio. “Vehicle is a dry hole.”

  Which meant the man in front of us had it.

  He was a block ahead but not running as fast as we were, probably because his idea of physical training was smoking a hookah pipe. We closed to a half of a block. I saw him glance over his shoulder, his eyes bugging out of his head with the realization that we were going to catch him. He reached a cross street called Londres and ran straight into a market. I couldn’t believe my good luck.

  “Blood, Blood, this is Pike. Get your ass down here. He just entered Mercado Insurgentes. Take up your planned position.”

  Knuckles said, “Same for me?”

  “Yeah. I’ll go in and flush him.”

  Mercado Insurgentes was a shopping area a block long, full of stalls no more than five feet across and walkways smaller than three feet in width. It was a maze. It was also the place I had preplanned to meet the Ghost, had I needed an off-site instead of his hotel room, which meant we knew the area much better than the target did because we’d already conducted a recce. Unlike him, we knew it only had two exits: one on Londres, which Blood would take, and one on Liverpool Street, where Knuckles would position.

  Knuckles continued running flat out down the block, heading toward the southern Liverpool exit. I sprinted into the market, having little trouble finding my quarry due to the racket he was making trying to escape in the confined space.

  The vendors were starting to swarm the congested pathways through the maze, wondering who the jackass was that was knocking over all the souvenir Santa Muerte statues and handcrafted jewelry. I slowed, not needing to rush now. Not wanting to highlight myself like he was doing.

  I followed the noise, moving deeper into the market, taking turns by sound alone. Eventually, my target got smart and quit running blindly through the stalls. I started conducting a grid search, saying into my radio, “Are we set?”

  “North set.”

  “South set.”

  “Roger all. Time to do some quail hunting. Stand by.”

  I weaved through the stalls, peeking across and between the various tourist junk for sale, systematically going in one direction, then cutting back to another. Slicing the market into smaller and smaller sections of pie.

  I caught a flash of movement two rows over and peeked between a shelf of jade necklaces, the owner knowing better than to ask if I was shopping. I saw my target, standing still and facing the other way, a laptop in his hand. I held my finger to my lips and looked at the shopkeeper. She nodded, not saying a word.

  I exited, went to the nearest little alley of a walkway, and snuck behind him. He was now one row of shops over, and I could see the laptop through the back of another stall, behind a selection of Mayan calendars. He was up against a wall and could go no deeper into the market. I knew he was close to the southern exit, even if he didn’t. I decided to get him to the street instead of wrestling him to the ground here.

  I moved right to the edge of the stall, squatted beneath the calendars, and said, “Stop! Stop right there!”

  As expected, he jumped like I’d poked him with a cattle prod and took off running, paralleling the wall. I circled around and gave chase, letting him gain distance. “Knuckles, he’s five seconds out.”

  “Roger all.”

  I saw daylight, then heard the scuffle. I reached a small alcove that led to the street in time to see Knuckles bounce back as the man swung a small pocketknife at him. I heard the cough of a suppressed pistol, then the man collapsed, the laptop bouncing on the concrete.

  Exasperated, I said, “What the fuck? You took him down because of that little toothpick?”

  “Asshole was trying to kill me.”

  I couldn’t argue with that. I said, “Get Decoy here with the vehicle and lock that door leading in. You get to clean up your mess.”

  He grunted something and I grinned at him, snatching up the laptop, knowing we’d just accomplished the mission. Well, the half that mattered the most, anyway.

  I opened it and saw something that looked like an old-fashioned stereo face. I ran my finger over the track pad and a pop-up appeared, saying the computer was locked for “CareBear” and to enter a password or use a biometric thumb pad at the base of the keyboard.

  I waited until it disappeared, then studied the screen. All the switches and dials were in the off position, with an upper box labeled “Satellite Acquisition.” The number in the box was zero.

  So we’re good.

  I looked at the bottom of the screen, seeing another box labeled, “Next Disruption.” Beside it was a clock showing eleven hours and twenty-two minutes.

  And it was counting down.

  65

  The Ghost watched the fractured response from the security personnel at the museum entrance and knew checking the locker wouldn’t be an issue. The explosions and gunfire had caused some reaction, but for the most part the tourists wandering around the exhibits simply looked at each other in confusion. Which is exactly what the security personnel did. Eventually, they started moving inside, but apart from the initial fight at the temple, there was no chaos. No screaming or running amok.

  He assumed Pelón and the American were long gone, and he would have been as well except he needed the passport. He left the museum trailing another group of tourists, the woman’s pistol hidden in his laptop case.

  He knew he should have killed her, should have used her suppressed weapon to punch a hole in her head, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. Her actions had been incredibly brave, and in truth, were something he never would have expected to see from an American. From an enemy.

  She had risked her life to ensure his safety. Had shown compas
sion he would have never given if their positions had been reversed, along with the courage to use it in the face of great bodily harm. It was an act that had confounded him.

  Despite what she’d done, he knew he should have taken her life. She was still the enemy, and the cold, reptilian part of his nature was chastising him for his weakness. But he had been here before.

  A year ago, he had seen a close friend begin to crumble from the pressures of a mission and had understood he should eliminate the weak link if he wanted to succeed. But he could not, and because of it, he’d ended up in the hands of Mr. Pink.

  He’d often wondered what had happened to his friend, wondered if he was living a life of isolation in a strange American prison like he had been, but he had never regretted the decision. It was his choice to make, as with the woman, and his life was worth less than his honor. Flesh and blood were frail and fleeting. Honor was forever.

  He could kill without remorse, but he did so for a purpose. In his world, betrayal was a way of life, just like the mission he’d been given by Mr. Pink. The actions of the woman, on the other hand, were a surprise.

  She would return to hunt him, he knew, and regardless of her actions, he would still owe her a debt. And he understood he would never repay it. If she stood in his way in the future, if she attempted to capture him again, he would kill her just as quickly as anyone else. The dichotomy caused no conflict in his mind. It was what it was.

  War.

  The tourist group he was following continued on to the street, and he veered to the left, traveling downstairs to the parking area. He saw a pack of schoolkids waiting for a bus, all excitedly talking to each other and bouncing around, exasperating their chaperone. On the wall adjacent to the stop was a bank of small lockers, designed to hold umbrellas, purses, and wallets.

  His key said seventy-two. He ran his eyes down the row, found the number, and unlocked the door. He pulled it open and smiled. Inside was a Lebanese passport, just as promised.